Al-Qaeda Is Here, There, Everywhere, Including Iraq: Rumsfeld
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Al-Qaeda
members are all over: Rumsfeld
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WASHINGTON,
Aug 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While the U.S. appears to
be determined to attack Iraq regardless of international refusal, U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday, August 6, that members
of the Al-Qaeda network are in Iraq but would not say whether their
presence was sanctioned by the government.
“If
you’re asking, are there Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the answer is yes, there
are. It’s a fact, yes,” Rumsfeld told reporters at a Pentagon news
conference.
But
he declined to say whether there was any evidence of Iraqi support for
Al-Qaeda operations or whether they were in Iraq with the government's
blessings, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Washington
has highlighted the special threat posed by “rogue” states with
weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism.
But
so far it has not shown evidence of Iraqi support for Al-Qaeda or the
September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Rumsfeld
noted that after the U.S. military assault on their strongholds in
Afghanistan, al-Qaeda dispersed throughout the region.
“There’s
no doubt but they’re in Yemen, they’re in Saudi Arabia, they’re
in the United States, they’re in Iraq, they’re in Iran, they’re
in Afghanistan, they’re in Pakistan, they’re undoubtedly in some
of the northern countries above Afghanistan where they’ve fled,
they’re undoubtedly in Southeast Asia,” he said.
“I
mean, they’re all over.”
Meanwhile,
U.S. President George W. Bush promised Wednesday, August 7, to consult
U.S. friends and allies as he explores all options on how to remove
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power.
The
president and his top advisers moved to calm a growing international
storm over Iraq, whipped by reports of intensive U.S. planning for an
invasion early next year.
“I
promise you that I will be patient and deliberate, that we will
continue to consult with Congress and of course we will consult with
our friends and allies,” Bush said in Jackson, Mississippi.
“I
will explore all options and all tools at my disposal, diplomacy
international pressure, perhaps the military,” he said.
Iraqi
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Wednesday that his country would not
give in to pressure from the United States and Britain to
unconditionally readmit arms inspectors, AFP reported.
Speaking
in an interview with the BBC in Baghdad, Sabri said that his country
would only readmit United Nations weapons inspectors if sanctions
against Iraq were lifted.
U.S.
allies in Europe and the Gulf have watched with growing unease as a
flurry of U.S. newspaper reports have carried leaks of invasion
options that suggest that the administration has all but decided to
use military force pre-emptively against Iraq.
U.S.
daily newspaper, the Washington Times, quoted administration officials
Wednesday as saying that the Joint Chiefs of Staff were now fully
behind an invasion, yielding to pressure from their more hawkish
civilian leaders after months of resistance.
A
Bush administration adviser told the newspaper that the members of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff have “come over because they can read the
handwriting on the wall.”
News
accounts of a behind-the-scenes struggle pitting civilians at the
Pentagon who want an aggressive campaign against Baghdad against more
cautious generals were disputed Wednesday by Air Force General Richard
Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The
way things are portrayed in these articles simply haven’t occurred
in front of me. OK?” said Myers.
Vice
President Dick Cheney, speaking in San Francisco at the Commonwealth
Club of California, reiterated that Bush “has not made a decision at
this point to go to war.”
“We’re
looking at all of our options. It would be irresponsible for us not to
do that,” he said.
Asked
whether Washington was prepared to call off military action if Baghdad
agreed to the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, Cheney replied:
“The issue here isn’t inspectors.”
“Many
of us, I think, are skeptical that simply returning the inspectors
will solve the problem,” he said.
His
remarks came against a backdrop of international concern, particularly
in Europe.
British
Minister for Middle East Affairs, Mike O’Brien, said a war could be
avoided if Iraq allowed UN inspectors in to check for chemical and
biological weapons.
“It
is not imminent, and it is not inevitable,” he said in a BBC radio
interview. “Nobody wants war for the sake of it.”
German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warned that an invasion of Iraq would be
a mistake.
“It
will not be well understood as a means of defense and could destroy
the international alliance against terrorism,” he told the German
newspaper Bild.
The
European Union reiterated support for U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan’s work with Iraq and the need for inspectors to return. 
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